Days 2 and 3 have kind of blended together in a long period of travel and isolation. We boarded the plane in Chicago and landed in Brussels. We had 40 minutes to get to our flight that would take us from Brussels to Munich. Or so we thought. The plane was delayed, so it didn't arrive for some time. We took off 30 minutes late. We originally only had an hour between landing in Munich and departing for Tel Aviv, so it was going to be tight, given that we had to go through passport checks and so on. The flight attendant in Brussels reassured us that it would be fine.
It wasn't fine. We missed our 11:20am connection and had to wait for the next flight to Tel Aviv, which would depart at 10:10pm.
By the time we landed in Munich we had been awake for 22 hours, and now we were looking at another 11 hours of waiting for a flight that would take 4 hours. Additionally, we had taken our PCR COVID test on Tuesday morning, early enough that we'd get the results (24-48 hours to receive) before boarding our flight from O'Hare on Thursday evening, but late enough that it would qualify for the "no longer than 72 hours before entry into Israel" requirement. But our 72 hour window would expire at 6:00pm on Friday. We were initially going to land in Israel at 5:00pm. With this delay we wouldn't land until 3:00am Saturday. We would have to re-take our COVID PCR tests.
Fortunately, Munich airport had a testing lab on-site, and they could do a PCR test that would provide results in 1-2 hours. Because the problem was caused by Lufthansa's connection, they gave us vouchers that would let us take that €200 test for free, and vouchers that would let us eat for up to €10 two times that day.
About the connection... we're a little unclear about what the Lufthansa representative meant, because English is one of the four or five languages we heard her speak while we were in line, but it sounded like she was saying 36 people from our Brussels-to-Munich flight were also headed to Tel Aviv. The service representative in Munich explained that with so many people connecting in Munich to Tel Aviv, they would normally hold the plane until we could board. But with Israel it's different. They have very strict rules about entry into Israel, and if they held the plane they would lose all the rights to fly into Israel. So they let the plane go, and moved all of us to the 10:10pm flight.
Mom and I took turns napping on the seats in a completely empty area of the terminal, we charged our devices, we caught up on emails, and all the other things one does while waiting for 11 hours.
Our PCR tests came back negative. We went to our gate at 8:00 to check in very early for our 10:10pm flight. There were already dozens of people there, of course. One group of women started singing what sounded like a religious song in Spanish. It was really beautiful. We got our passports checked, and then they opened the door for us to board the plane... or so we thought.
Instead of walking through the door down a jetway to a plane, we walked through a door down a staircase to the ground floor, which was about three or four stories of steps below. We expected to cross the tarmac and ascend the stairs to our plane, but that's not what happened either. Instead, we boarded a double-long bus that had our flight number on it, and when it was completely packed with people (no social distancing on this bus) it drove us around the service roads of the airport to a distant bus terminal, where we would do a super thorough security screening.
We didn't have to disrobe, thankfully, but we did have to remove jackets, sweaters, and shoes. Like usual, all electronics in our bags, which had already been scanned at O'Hare, had to come out of the bags into bins, and re-scanned. They used a wand to check for metal, while performing a surprisingly familiar pat-down. The woman checking me learned that I was not concealing anything in my bra or pants. She had me stand on one foot at a time so she could move the wand over the bottoms of my feet. The wand picked up something in my pocket. It was the unused sanitary wipe that the flight attendant had given me on the previous flight. The "metal" detector was set to a very sensitive setting.
When we were through the screening, my mother asked one of the officers, "Do you do this for every flight from Munich? Or is this just for travel to Israel?" "ONLY for Israel," he answered.
We thought we'd leave the screening depot and head outside to board our plane. But instead, we got back on one of two double-long busses, packed to bursting with people, and rode more service roads to a plane somewhere completely different than our gate or the screening depot. We boarded last. (Mom has a way of saying "no, after you" to everyone we meet.) The flight was completely full.
The process to check passports, drive us to the screening depot, drive us back to the plane, and board everyone, took over an hour.
How were they going to get us through that process between our earlier landing and departure?
We spent about 4 hours flying to Israel, where we would disembark and go through passport control. Then pick up luggage. Then go through customs. Then to another PCR test. The lines were HUGE! There was a lot of activity at the Ben Gurion airport at 4:00am! A few hours earlier we were in the Munich airport and it was a s quiet as could be during the daytime, and now we were in Tel Aviv and you would have thought it was Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale! There were people from EVERYWHERE, and we all had to get our noses swabbed for COVID before we could leave the airport. When it was finally our turn I showed the technician our negative test results from 12 hours earlier. That was irrelevant. EVERYONE entering Israel gets a PCR test, and the results take 24 hours to receive. Until then, we stay in our hotel room.
Because our pre-reserved shuttle to the hotel had been there to pick us up at 5:00pm, we had to take a taxi to our hotel, which was about an hour away. That was ₪600 (Shekels), or about $200. We arrived at our hotel at nearly 6:00am. We had left for O'Hare Airport on Thursday at 2:00pm Chicago time, and were checking in to our hotel at 6:00 Saturday morning Israel time (which was 10pm Friday night in Chicago).
To be clear, neither of us got annoyed at all during this day of travel and unexpected shifts in plans. We're just happy to be here. Mom's a super content traveler. We're enjoying this immensely, and we haven't even seen Israel yet!
We have slept enough for today, but can't leave the room until we get negative test results. They could come in as late as 3:00am, so not sure what we'll see of Israel today.
WOOOOOO!!!! It's 8:45pm and our results just came back negative. We're leaving the hotel!
